1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of testing operations of a computer system with a hard disk, and more particularly to a more efficient method of testing a computer system by using a hard disk located therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Once computer systems have been produced, they are subjected to a computer testing process for testing whether each of the produced computer systems is operating normally using a test program installed on a hard disk therein, and for testing whether programs installed on the hard disk are executed normally.
Personal computers operating with a DOS (Disk Operating System) program can be powered offjust after their operations are tested. However, when computer systems are booted with Windows 95 of the Microsoft Corporation, which is installed in a computer system as an operating system, and tested by a test program to detect whether or not they are operating normally, there arise several problems when the computer system is tested in accordance with conventional testing methods using floppy disks.
First, since a computer system is tested by using a floppy disk inserted therein, the test speed thereof is relatively lower due to a comparatively slow disk access time.
Secondly, it is impossible to test the computer system with a new operating system by using only a floppy disk. Also, when a computer system is initially operated with an operating system to which a specific product number is assigned, information such as product number and the like must be entered into the computer system by a user. Since the information of an operating system to be installed into a plurality of produced computer systems are different from one another, a longer time is required to input the information into respective computer systems for testing.
To overcome the above described problems, a software maker supplies a so-called xe2x80x9cAUDITxe2x80x9d mode execution program for a hardware maker. If the xe2x80x9cAUDITxe2x80x9d mode execution program is provided for the produced computer systems, each of the computer systems can be tested without the input of information. For example, if a computer system is initially booted with the Windows 95 operating system of the Microsoft Corporation to be tested as to whether or not the computer system is operating normally, there is no need for inputting information into the computer system by means of a so-called xe2x80x9cPre-Installerxe2x80x9d program, which has been provided by the company.
In an earlier method of testing a computer system with a hard disk, and installing a plurality of program files on the hard disk in accordance with the earlier method, a physically formatted hard disk is partitioned by means of an FDISK.EXE file to use a whole region thereof as one partition region, and then the partitioned hard disk is logically formatted by means of a FORMAT.EXE file. The Windows 95 operating system is installed on the hard disk by means of a Pre-Installer, and device drivers necessary for operations of the computer system are sequentially installed on the hard disk. Application program files to be used by a user are also installed on the hard disk. The above described files are stored on the hard disk.
Information of the hard disk serving as an original hard disk are duplicated on other hard disks by using a disk duplicating apparatus, and the duplicated hard disk is established in a computer system.
The computer system is booted with DOS on a floppy disk serving as a boot drive, and then a test program for DOS is executed in the computer system to test whether or not the computer system is operating normally. The Pre-Installer as well as a test program for Windows 95 is then installed on the hard disk.
Next, the computer system is booted with the Windows 95 operating system on the hard disk serving as a boot drive and then the test program for Windows 95 is executed to test whether or not the computer system is operating normally.
Finally, the test program for the Windows 95 operating system and the Pre-Installer are erased from the hard disk.
According to this method for testing the computer system, there frequently arises a serious problem in that programs which are normally performed under a user"" computer environment are not normally performed under the AUDIT mode.
Also, if application programs are installed using the Windows 95 operating system on the hard disk during the AUDIT mode, they should be completely erased from the hard disk after the test of the computer system because an initializing file may be changed due to the remaining application programs on the hard disk. If not, since unnecessary information remains on the hard disk serving as a boot drive, a test operator waits for the computer system to be normally terminated. As a result, it takes the operator a long time to test the computer system.
Furthermore, since the computer system is booted with DOS on a floppy disk, a relatively long time is required for booting the computer system.
The following patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited method of testing operations of a computer system with a hard disk as in the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,844 to Cheng et al., entitled Background Memory Test During System Start Up, U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,683 to Coogan, entitled Self-Testing Peripheral-Controller system, U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,866 to Lawrence et al., entitled Method And Apparatus For Deriving Mirrored Unit State When Re-Initializing A System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,766 to Schieve et al., entitled System And Method For Loading Diagnostics routines From Disk, U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,790 to Keeley et al., entitled Power-On Sequencing Apparatus For Initializing And Testing A System Processing Unit, U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,335 to Onffroy et al., entitled Storage System Self-Test Apparatus And Method, U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,385 to Kikuchi entitled Method Of Testing Program And Compiler And Program Testing Tool For The Method, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,537 to Fujikawa et al., entitled Burn-In diagnostic Technique For A Disc Driving Apparatus.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a method of easily testing a computer system using a hard disk, which is partitioned into first and second partition regions, in which overall operations of the computer system are tested with a test program installed in the second partition region and after the completion of the test, the second partition region is erased.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of testing a computer system with a hard disk which is physically formatted, comprises the steps of defining a whole region of said hard disk as a first partition region; installing a plurality of program files necessary for operations of said computer system in said first partition region; partitioning said hard disk to define a part of said first partition region as a second partition region, said second partition region being overlapped with part of said first partition region; setting said second partition region as a boot driver; installing said program files in said second partition region; re-booting said computer system using said second partition region; installing a test program file in said second partition region to form an original hard disk; testing said computer system using said test program file in said second partition region; erasing said second partition region overlapped with said first partition region; and setting said first partition region as a boot driver region.
In this embodiment, the step of defining said first partition region comprises partitioning said hard disk to use said whole region of said hard disk as said first partition region, and logically formatting said first partition region.
In this embodiment, the step of installing said plurality of program files necessary for the operations of said computer system comprises installing an operating system in said first partition region, installing a plurality of device drivers in said first partition region and installing a plurality of application programs in the first partition region.
In this embodiment, the step of partitioning said hard disk to define said second partition region comprises detecting a starting position of areas where data is not stored on said hard disk, and setting said starting position as a starting position of said second partition region.
In this embodiment, the step of partitioning said hard disk to define said second partition region comprises setting a starting position of said second partition region by a user.
In this embodiment, the step of re-booting said computer system is performed in accordance with an operating system located in said second partition region.
In this embodiment, the step of installing said test program file in said second partition region comprises duplicating said plurality of the program files installed in said first partition region into said second partition region.
In this embodiment, the method further comprises the steps of duplicating, after installing said test program file in said second partition region, said program files of said original hard disk on a plurality of other hard disks by means of a disk duplicating apparatus to form a plurality of duplicated hard disks, and establishing one of said duplicated hard disks in a computer system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for testing a computer system with a hard disk which is physically formatted, comprises the steps of partitioning said hard disk to define a whole region of said hard disk as a first partition region and a part of said first partition region as a second partition region, said first second partition region being overlapped with part of said first partition region; installing a plurality of program files necessary for operations of said computer system in said first partition region; setting said second partition region as a boot driver; installing said program files in said second partition region; re-booting said computer system using said second partition region; installing a test program file in said second partition region to form an original hard disk; testing said computer system using said test program file in said second partition region; erasing said second partition region overlapped with said first partition region; and setting said first partition region as a boot driver region.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, a method for testing a computer system with a hard disk which is physically formatted, comprises the steps of partitioning said hard disk to define a whole region of said hard disk as a first partition region and a part of said first partition region as a second partition region, said first second partition region being overlapped with part of said first partition region; sequentially installing a plurality of program files necessary for operations of said computer system in said first and second partition regions; setting said second partition region as a boot driver; re-booting said computer system using said second partition region; installing a test program file in said second partition region to form an original hard disk; testing said computer system using said test program file in said second partition region; erasing said second partition region overlapped with said first partition region; and setting said first partition region as a boot driver region.